≡ [PDF] Ellis Island A Novel Kate Kerrigan 9780062071538 Books

Ellis Island A Novel Kate Kerrigan 9780062071538 Books

Download As PDF : Ellis Island A Novel Kate Kerrigan 9780062071538 Books

Ellis Island A Novel Kate Kerrigan 9780062071538 Books

The first time I read this book I was enthralled by the story. On a second reading, I had to take a more critical approach to this author's style of writing. Phrases like "...damp crinkled the corners of the painted walls like a creeping demon," and others of this type were distracting and took away from what could have been a great story if edited down to more precise prose. The premise has promise: Ellie and John are childhood chums who fall in love and marry young against their families' wishes. It is Ireland during The Troubles and John is severely injured and requires surgery which in no way fits into the budget. Ellie takes up an offer from a former schoolmate and travels to New York City to work as a lady's maid to earn the money for John's surgery. Being a bright young woman she soon has more opportunity than she could ever have imagined in her small village in Ireland, and she long overstays her original goal of simply earning the money for John's surgery. Fast forward to Ellie's receipt of a letter saying her estranged father is dying and Ellie's return to Ireland where time has virtually stood still in terms of modernization. And on and on it goes with silly episodes of Ellie's reintroduction to an agrarian lifestyle such as the birth of a calf where Ellie is covered from head to toe in cow manure. I wanted to like this book as much on a second read as I had on the first, but found it lacking.


Tags : Ellis Island: A Novel [Kate Kerrigan] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. “A standout novel….A rare combination of historical enlightenment and sheer enjoyment.”<br />—Peter Quinn,Kate Kerrigan,Ellis Island: A Novel,William Morrow Paperbacks,006207153X,Historical - General,Ireland - Emigration and immigration,Ireland - History - 20th century,Irish - New York (State) - New York,Irish;New York (State);New York;Fiction.,Marriage,Marriage;Fiction.,New York (N.Y.) - History - 1898-1951,Young women,Young women;Fiction.,FICTION General,FICTION Historical General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Historical fiction,Irish,Irish Novel And Short Story,New York,New York (State)

Ellis Island A Novel Kate Kerrigan 9780062071538 Books Reviews

I love reading the books about people that immigrated to the US from Ireland or Scotland. My own GGrandparents were Irish although they immigrated to Scotland when they were children. Most of the stories I have read have given me the down side of their journey since most came over in Steerage accommodations Ellis Island did not.

We start when Ellie and John are young children and follow their love through coming of age, war and its changes to their lives and all the valleys and mountains in between.

Do you think if you worked hard, met the right people and had a good start in life you might find yourself "sitting on top of the world"? I think a lot of us, if we're honest, wouldn't mind giving up our day job and get used to living in luxuries lap. You got almost any and everything money or friends could buy. Life was really a bowl of cherries.

Oh shoot, luxury stands up and you know where you are, right? You find yourself back on the floor with the dirt. Things you thought you'd left behind forever find their ways back in. You have the power to decide whether to remain in the dirt where you know you are dirty but loved or do you go back to luxury and see where she continues to lead.

Now, I usually don't get this caught up in a book but when my said I was 88% finished I panicked. My reading slowed as I did not want to leave Ellie, John and the other members of their family and friends which I now considered my own. I found myself in tears with Ellie and John's struggles.
Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan is a well crafted tale of what it means to achieve a dream that you didn't even know you had and then have to reconcile the demands of that dream against the commitments of marriage, family and community.

Ellie, the central character often aggravated me with some of her choices, but it was never because her choices didn't make sense. It was because her choices were entirely human and relatable if not always laudable. Her internal dialogues reflected the day-to-day struggles of most of us especially those that force us to choose between what we WANT to do versus what the better angels of our nature tell us we ought to do. That is something I think we can all relate to...that business of doing the right thing but chafing against it the whole time.

The book was close to perfect and my connection to Ellie was so strong that I often felt uncomfortable when she teetered on the edge of making what would have been for her, a soul shattering choice. Another small complaint is with the title. I am not totally sure why it was titled Ellis Island because it was less about the immigrant experience in America than it was about coming home with all that that entails.

Bottom line this was one that I hated to see come to an end. I can't recommend it any higher than that.
Set in the 1920s, this is the story of Ellie Hogan, a young woman who immigrates to America from rural Ireland with the simple goal of making money, but she does more than that. She embraces the city and it embraces her back. She calls it home. And here's the twist! But then her real home does call her back, and she goes--very reluctantly and with a heavy heart. The first of a trilogy, this book by Kate Kerrigan is a fun historical novel, albeit with a lot of whining that is probably supposed to be introspection. More solid, thoughtful editing would have helped the storyline.
First, let me say that I enjoyed reading this novel. I was torn about giving it a 5-star rating, but I ended up with a 4-star. I liked the storyline, and the author did a good job with historical facts interwoven into the story. I'm not ordinarily a fan of first-person stories, but the author handled it fairly well.

However, as good as the author was with descriptions of things, people and events, I kept thinking that perhaps she overdid it - taking too much time and words in those descriptions. I prefer to use my imagination wherever possible.

The other thing that kept me from rating this a 5-star was intensity of main character's emotions and emotional thoughts. Excuse my expression, but it seem that Ellie, the main character, over-thought almost everything in her life. That over-thinking took up a lot of words in the novel. I don't mind the emotional thoughts of characters, but too much is not always a good thing.

Still, for all that, I finished the novel and I did enjoy it. And isn't that what reading is supposed to be all about - enjoyment? And don't forget, 4-stars is not a bad rating.

Patrick
The first time I read this book I was enthralled by the story. On a second reading, I had to take a more critical approach to this author's style of writing. Phrases like "...damp crinkled the corners of the painted walls like a creeping demon," and others of this type were distracting and took away from what could have been a great story if edited down to more precise prose. The premise has promise Ellie and John are childhood chums who fall in love and marry young against their families' wishes. It is Ireland during The Troubles and John is severely injured and requires surgery which in no way fits into the budget. Ellie takes up an offer from a former schoolmate and travels to New York City to work as a lady's maid to earn the money for John's surgery. Being a bright young woman she soon has more opportunity than she could ever have imagined in her small village in Ireland, and she long overstays her original goal of simply earning the money for John's surgery. Fast forward to Ellie's receipt of a letter saying her estranged father is dying and Ellie's return to Ireland where time has virtually stood still in terms of modernization. And on and on it goes with silly episodes of Ellie's reintroduction to an agrarian lifestyle such as the birth of a calf where Ellie is covered from head to toe in cow manure. I wanted to like this book as much on a second read as I had on the first, but found it lacking.